Welcome to February. When looking at the books we’re most excited about for this month, it’s difficult to find a common thread. There are revelatory books that help explain some of the most contentious issues of our time; there are also surreal works of fiction that turn the familiar into the utterly bizarre. These are narratives that unfold in unexpected ways, whether real or imagined–and whether the corners of the world that they illuminate are urgent or obscure, they offer a new way of seeing that which surrounds us.